| Article ID: | iaor19932022 |
| Country: | United States |
| Volume: | 60 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Start Page Number: | 168 |
| End Page Number: | 177 |
| Publication Date: | Mar 1993 |
| Journal: | ACM SIGPLAN Notices |
| Authors: | Rooks Michael |
Computer software for modelling dynamic systems has existed for over three decades. During this period, computer modelling and simulation have been enhanced by powerful simulation languages, graphical modelling techniques, and statistical techniques. A recent trend in simulation software development has been the addition of many analysis tools to existing simulation languages. An examination of these tools indicates that they are predominantly independent of the application area for which the simulation language is designed, suggesting that a general library of simulation analysis tools should be created for use with several simulation languages. A user-centered approach to simulation software design provides an application-independent description of the model analyst’s needs. This description is the basis for a general environment within which simulation languages and models may be implemented, and prevents the redundant coding of application-oriented simulation software. It improves on the traditional language-centered approach, which first describes a simulation system in terms of an application language, and considers the experimental interface as secondary. This paper motivates and describes the design of user-centered software for visual interactive simulation.